Footballers do their suffering in public."I'm not sure he even knows he's being talked about. All I can say is he comes into training before most of the other lads He is out on the field before they are even here. Sinclair was in the England dressing-room at Shizuoka in the ghastly aftermath of Ronaldinho's infamous free-kick - which reduced Seaman to a tearful, mumbled apology to the nation - and he feels deeply for his team-mate. At 40, his habit of signing autographs "Safe Hands" now looks rather ironic after half-a-dozen errors that have been replayed, slowed down, analysed and used as damning evidence that he should have accepted Ars? Wenger's offer to become a coach at Highbury rather than indulge in a final, middle-aged fling in Manchester.He apologised for Lokeren's first goal, hesitating fatally as a looping back-header from Sun Jihai became lost in the lights. Perhaps he was too focused on his imminent resignation, but on Wednesday night he attacked his own supporters for their fickleness, a perilous route for any but the most secure football man.Unlike his counterpart at Old Trafford, the Manchester City manager does not have a Machiavellian bone in his body but his criticisms at least drew the media away from dwelling too long on another goalkeeping error by David Seaman.

Trevor Sinclair bristles when I suggest he is one of several flair players who have invigorated Manchester City's start to their first season away from Maine Road in 80 years. "Am I a flair player?" he asks "I get forward but I'm helpful going back [Steve] McManaman's the same. People talk about flair players but picture them walking back saying, 'Come on, lads, get on with it'. That is definitely not our team."McManaman did indeed do his share of defending in Wednesday's wholly unconvincing Uefa Cup victory over Lokeren, a club bottom of the Belgian First Division, but who reached the away dressing-room 2-1 up at half-time and with the boos of the home crowd still audible in the September chill.Kevin Keegan could not recall being howled down by his own crowd before, not even after the defeat by Germany which marked the end of the old Wembley and his own time as the England manager. She is also working to put together a syndicate with her sponsors and Sanderson to enter the Volvo Ocean race of 2005.Major funding is being sought so the project could get off the ground in the new year.

She is due in Scotland today to do a spot of television presenting, then heads back south for more work on Pindar in the build-up to the TJV. I've done my time," Richards says."Some single-handed sailors love it and can't wait to get back to it, and I can understand what they see in it. Whenever I start a race in November, which seems like every year, we've always had bad weather."The attraction of sailing double-handed is therefore not only about getting more sleep ("I should get a couple of two-hour sleeps a day as opposed to some broken 20-minute naps if I was single-handed") but about the security - mental and otherwise - of sailing with someone else. In 1999, the fleet was hit by Hurricane Irene, which claimed the life of the Frenchman Paul Vatine. Mike's got boats on the brain."This year's TJV will be Richards' third Past experience has shown how tough it can be. "I get to spend two-and-a-half weeks with him, racing, doing something I love doing It's like a dream come true.

I've always thought this would be the race to do with a person you want to spend time with, and we're going to do it."So if the weather is clement, there might be a chance for the odd candlelit dinner, then? Richards laughs "Hardly We're in this race looking for a podium finish We want to win We'll be focussed on that. You improve in sailing by working with the best and Mike's certainly one of the best."Any notion that weeks at sea in a confined space in arduous conditions might put their relationship under strain are dismissed "I can't wait," Richards laughs. A veteran of two Whitbread races and two America's Cups, he has also held a trans-Atlantic speed record and is currently in America waiting for a weather window to attempt another."If I was going out with David Beckham, I wouldn't be going sailing with him just because of it," Richards says "Mike's a better sailor than I probably ever will be He's been professional since he left school He's done more racing than me. I'm four years younger, went to university and didn't start professional racing until six or seven years ago, whereas he's already been in the industry for 16 years. The international cast will also see Richards again facing Bernard Stamm of Switzerland, who won the Around Alone and will sail with France's Christophe Lebas in the TJV.An element of added spice for Richards is that Sanderson, her co-skipper (she does not believe in pulling rank, although technically she is the skipper) is also her boyfriend.